


Surprise

by celeste9



Category: Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Gen, Post-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-06
Updated: 2014-02-06
Packaged: 2018-01-11 10:19:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1171895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quistis gets an unexpected visitor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Surprise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [eerian_sadow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/gifts).



> For eerian_sadow in Fandom Stocking.

“And that is why long-term junctioning with a Guardian Force is a hotly debated subject,” Quistis said just as the bell rang to signal the end of class. “Please be sure to keep up with the reading!” she urged as the students filed out of the classroom, noisily and likely not paying her the slightest bit of attention.

She hid a smile that was more bemused than anything else. Some things would probably never change. Quistis sat down behind her desk and began shuffling through some papers, hoping that she might be able to get a bit of work done before she met Selphie for a sparring session. In a minute she’d run to the cafeteria to grab something for lunch, after the line died down.

“Am I in time for office hours, Instructor?”

Quistis dropped the stack of papers she’d been sorting back onto her desk. That voice could belong to only one person. It was a voice she hadn’t heard outside her dreams in months. Turning her head, she saw him standing there, framed in the doorway, leaning against it, that insouciant smirk as familiar as ever.

“What are you doing here?” she said, pushing her seat back to stand up and face him on equal footing. She could hardly believe Seifer would dare to show his face here, but then, Seifer was a special breed and he had always surprised her. She wondered if Squall knew yet.

Probably not. Seifer likely wouldn’t be standing there if Squall knew he was in the Garden.

“What, because the last time we saw each other we were trying to kill each other?” Seifer stepped fully into the room. “Like I’d let a little thing like that stop me.”

“Seifer,” Quistis said, not exactly seeing the joke.

“You didn’t think I’d forget what day it is, did you?”

Quistis frowned. “What day it is?”

“Don’t play dumb, Quistie.”

Carefully not flinching at the childhood nickname, Quistis instead folded her arms across her chest and waited for Seifer’s legendary impatience to kick in.

It didn’t take long. “I’d never forget your birthday.”

This time Quistis wasn’t able to keep her jaw from slackening. “How did you know it was today?”

Seifer tutted. “Oh, Quistie. You know you were always my favorite instructor. How could I not know?”

“You hated me.”

Something unidentifiable flashed across Seifer’s face. “Okay, if you won’t buy that, then how about the fact we spent our childhoods together? Not everyone forgot that.”

“You remembered?” Quistis’ mind raced, trying to sort out the degrees of regular GF use between them, her and Seifer and Squall and Zell, and why he remembered better than they did. He hadn’t had Irvine to call it all back to him. It would make a fascinating study… if only Seifer or Squall would have any interest in questioning, which she highly doubted.

And if only Seifer wasn’t… Seifer.

Seifer shrugged. “Enough. The important bits.”

Quistis took a step closer to him, feeling something spark inside her head. “You remembered Edea. You always remembered her.”

Glancing away, Seifer declined to answer. “So. Got your old job back. Have to say I’m a little surprised.”

Quistis flushed. “Why? Because you were my student and you went and sold yourself out to a sorceress?”

“No. I just thought you didn’t like it. I thought you were better in the field.”

Yes, Seifer had always surprised her. She kept her gaze on him, taking him in. He still dressed the same, those heavy, steel-toed boots and the long, gray coat that was undoubtedly a replacement, but he didn’t look the same. Quistis didn’t know exactly what it was, something in his bearing or his posture, perhaps. He wasn’t the same.

None of them were, she supposed. “Was that a compliment, Seifer?”

His smile this time hardly looked like a smirk at all. “Now, would I ever do a thing like that?”

Quistis bit her lip so she wouldn’t smile back. She wasn’t supposed to be enjoying this. She should kick him out. She was going to. She was.

“Let me buy you lunch,” Seifer said, and there was something nervous in those green eyes of his, something that was waiting for - expecting - her to say no. “Consider it a gift, to make up for all the birthdays I missed.”

Quistis knew she should say no. She should tell him to leave, to go back to wherever it was he’d been hiding. They weren’t friends, no matter where they’d grown up. There was too much between them, a history filled with mistakes and regrets and too much blood.

But Quistis knew an olive branch when she saw one and she didn’t, for whatever reason, want to turn Seifer away. Not when she knew, better than most, how proud he was and how much it must be costing him to even stand here in the room with her, asking to be friends, even if only for a day.

“All right,” Quistis said, because maybe what was past didn’t have to dictate the future. Maybe she could remember a little blond boy who’d played with her on the beach, building castles in the sand.

Maybe Seifer wasn’t the only one who could surprise.

_**End** _


End file.
